The Baltimore Sheriff’s Office says two people who protested outside the courthouse after a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the trial of police officer William Porter are facing charges.
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Prosecutors say Porter should have called an ambulance when Gray indicated he needed medical help, and should have buckled Gray’s seat belt. The outcome frustrated Black Lives Matter activists and others who have argued that police too easily escape legal consequences for the use of lethal force. Porter told the van’s driver and a supervisor that Gray had asked for aid but none was summoned, according to testimony.
After about 10 hours of deliberations, jurors in the trial of Officer William G. Porter, on trial for manslaughter in the death of Freddie Gray, announced Tuesday that they were deadlocked, but the judge told them to continue deliberating.
The mistrial leaves prosecutors, defense attorneys and a populace anxious to find closure back at square one.
But the jury on Wednesday said it could not reach a verdict in the first trial of officer William Porter, and the judge declared a mistrial.
“I know that many of my neighbors have been following this trial closely, and many may be disappointed by today’s outcome”, Cummings said in a statement calling for calm.
And some critics claim that the mistrial puts the cases of the five other officers in jeopardy.
Gray’s death in April from a broken neck suffered in a police van after an arrest triggered rioting in the mainly black city of 620,000 people.
Banzhaf said that juries are heavily influenced by previous rulings and that a conviction would break the seal to show that the officers can be convicted in this case. The jury had come back to the judge several times with questions, requests for witness transcripts and complaints that they couldn’t come to a resolution, but had been sent back to work by the judge.
Porter faces involuntary manslaughter and other charges. They generally are scheduled about three months later, he said, to allow for transcripts of the first trial to be distributed and studied. “Here’s what I foresee happening if they do retry… this officer and and [sic] he goes to jail there’s not going to be any policy change”.
“We will not – and cannot – be defined by the unrest of last spring”, she told reporters Wednesday. “It’s these officers who are on trial, but the reputation of the police department was irreparably damaged when Freddie Gray died”. Those first two police officers as soon as they saw that leg dragging and him [Gray] yelling, Gray should have been immobilized to prevent further injury.
“Protesters who are lawfully assembled have a friend in the Baltimore Police Department”, Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
If prosecutors decide to move forward with a second trial, there will be another battle over whether to move the case out of Baltimore.
Caesar Goodson’s trial is set to begin less than three weeks from now.
Alperstein said prosecutors did little to contest the defense narrative about lack of seat belt compliance. “It’s not a time to wish for a predetermined result; that’s not justice”, Murphy said. The trial ended Wednesday with a hung jury and mistrial. NPR’s Jennifer Ludden has more on the reaction to the mistrial and what’s next.
Within minutes of his mistrial ruling, a phalanx of uniformed officers surrounded the courthouse.
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During her closing argument, state prosecutor Janice Bledsoe alleged that Officer Porter had “abused his power” and “failed in his responsibility” to protect Gray from harm.
